Volunteers are more likely to stay within the hockey family if they have a Fun, Enjoyable and Rewarding experience. Create a Culture within your club or organisation where everyone Supports, Appreciates and Values your volunteers. Saying THANK YOU goes a long way!
Research shows that sports volunteers are far more likely to quit than volunteers in other sectors – largely because they feel undervalued, unknown or they have had poor experiences. Providing a great experience will not only help keep volunteers within the hockey family, but they will also become your best ambassadors for recruiting volunteers in the future and help to create a volunteer culture within your organisation.
Half of 16 to 25-year olds would rather volunteer in sport than in any other sector
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Induction and Welcome
- Your first interaction with a new volunteer is critical to creating a friendly, open and positive impression, showcasing your culture.
- Deliver a fantastic volunteer experience – every individual will be different, with different motivations and expectations. Understand why people want to make hockey happen.
- Have a well-planned welcome and induction process which will help the new volunteer understand the way in which the organisation works, its culture and values, and how their role fits within this. The volunteer will then feel supported, informed and confident to start their new role.
- Talk through their motivations for volunteering – why do they want to join the hockey family, their aims, goals and expectations, and any concerns or challenges.
- Provide the volunteer with a clear outline of their role and responsibilities - what the role is, what is expected, time commitment and what a difference their role makes within your organisation.
- Be creative with your roles - think about skills rather than jobs and break the role down into manageable tasks.
- Have a volunteer role email account e.g. XXHCsecretary@YY.com. It is a good idea to have specific role emails rather than using personal emails - it can be passed onto and used by the individual committee member at the time when they take up the specific role.
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- Volunteer coordinator role description
- Create a club culture where volunteering is the norm
- How to Run Effective Virtual Meetings - Create a culture where virtual meetings are valued and respected
- How to run good meetings guides;
- General Meeting Guidance – A General Meeting is open to all members and are held to make decisions that affect what your club does and how it is run
- How to Run Effective Meetings - Create a culture where meetings are valued and respected
- Top Tips – Chairing a Meeting - We all attend a variety of hockey meetings, which when chaired and conducted well, help us to achieve our goals in a more efficient way
- Top Tips – Getting through an Agenda - Having an agenda for your meeting will reduce time wasting, allow people to preparation for the meeting, encourages participation and keeps the meeting on track
- Top Tips – Involve everyone – People should feel involved and engaged but also able to express their viewpoints, disagree with one other and listen to different opinions in a way that is constructive
- Top Tips – Minutes Taking – Good minutes provide a brief and clear summary of what was discussed and agreed
- Introduce a ‘buddy scheme’
- Have a mentoring scheme and hand over process with existing/retiring role holders
- Develop their confidence in the role to delegate tasks
- Support the volunteer through the relevant qualifications, courses or workshops
- Develop contacts with other people doing similar roles in other clubs to widen the support network
- Encourage young players to help at an early age – this will also help them develop employability skills and enhance their CV by developing communication skills, relationship building, teamwork, leadership, coaching and mentoring
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- Always recognise your volunteer contributions to running your club or organisation. Small rewards go a long the way, for example, a free umpire hoodie in recognition for umpiring or a free ticket to the end of season awards night
- Have a volunteer of the Month
- Listen to your volunteers – this will help them remain confident, committed and motivated
- Connect regularly to them using their preferred mode of contact be it face to face, phone, text, meetings, social media, email or socials
- Provide volunteer socials as this creates a strong network and offers a support mechanism with other volunteers in your organisation
- Develop a volunteer membership / group e.g. the HockeyMakers concept in your club or organsation
- Give out thank you certificates/letters or text/email to say thank you
- Provide volunteers with opportunities to attend courses or workshops
- Undertake a volunteer progress review – this reflects on how important their contribution is, what they have achieved and how they positively affect the day to day running of your organisation
- Have a clear succession plan - which includes learning from outgoing volunteers and their experiences within your club or organisation
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- Buddle (Sport England's) Making Your Volunteering Experience Meaningful Guide for key considerations on how to provide a fun, enjoyable and rewarding experience to all of your volunteers
- Buddle provides resources for finding, keeping and developing volunteers
- England Hockey Club & Volunteer Conferences; Club Development Managers
